Description

Song Sleuth turns your iPhone or iPad into an automatic bird song identifier covering the 200 most common vocalizing land birds in the U.S.A. Developed by Wildlife Acoustics, in collaboration with world-renowned bird expert and illustrator David Sibley, the app records bird songs and suggests matching species. The identification algorithms are the result of over a decade of research and experience designing professional bioacoustics recorders and software.
Not just for beginners, the app also has features for intermediate birders who might need an identification hint or wish to study the included example recordings to take their ear birding to the next level. Advanced birders who don’t need any identification help will appreciate the ability to make and keep recordings for further study.
PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASING
Song Sleuth gets you started with suggested matches, but it is not perfect. Ultimately, it’s up to you to make the final identification. The app is intended to be an interactive and fun way to learn birding by ear. The more engaged you are in the process, the more we hope you will learn. Please read the following information on the app’s capabilities and limitations:
-The app does not identify simple calls, chips and scolds, only bird songs and more distinct calls that are characteristic of that species.
-The app does not recognize birds that are mimicking other birds such as the Thrashers and Mockingbird.
-It is ideal to get a recording of a single bird singing. The app can be confused by noise or background birds but tools are provided to trim and filter your recordings to improve the results.
- The app performs best outdoors with live birds, and not as well with pre-recorded sounds. Also, Song Sleuth automatically selects the birds that are likely to be in your area at the present time of year, so you need to be sure the birds you are playing are selected in the SPECIES LIST.
SONG SLEUTH HELPS YOU IDENTIFY SINGING BIRDS
Simply press the record button when you hear a bird singing and the app begins recording a few seconds back in time using the built-in microphone. Tap the record button again when the song is complete and Song Sleuth immediately shows you three most likely species. To assist you in determining the correct bird, you can listen to your recording and the example recordings of the likely matches as well as compare their spectrograms side-by-side.
SAVE, VIEW, LISTEN TO AND SHARE RECORDINGS
Recordings are saved in the RECORDING LIST where you can view the recording’s spectrogram, listen to the recording (and speed it up or slow down), add a text note, or view the GPS location. You can also trim the recording or filter the frequency range to remove extraneous sounds. Recordings can be shared with other Song Sleuth users via text messaging or email.
INCLUDES DAVID SIBLEY BIRD REFERENCE INFORMATION
The included David Sibley Bird Reference lets you learn more about each species. The reference includes Sibley illustrations of each bird, a description of each bird and its songs, zoomable range maps and a bar chart showing the likelihood of each bird’s presence in your area throughout the year, using Sibley’s extensive database of bird presence.
COMPLETE COLLECTION OF EXAMPLE RECORDINGS
Well-known nature recordist Lang Elliot and friends spent countless hours recording in the field to provide over 1,000 world-class recording examples of the included bird species. You can listen to a all the vocalizations made by each species or compare spectrograms to your own recordings or examples from other species.
SEE YOUR RECORDING LOCATIONS
Recording locations can be viewed on a satellite or road map or transferred to a computer and viewed in Google Earth. (Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.)

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Screenshots

Reviews

Miss

3

By kricketeee07

The idea of the app is absolutely brilliant! However, it is highly inaccurate. Every bird I would try to record, would say squirrel and list birds that were very in correct.

Slight learning curve, but great fun.

4

By cshramko

Once you get used to the app and remember to point the microphone towards the bird it works well. Great for use on hikes and camp outs. A hit with the kids.

Not enough bird choices

3

By Peg Z

App is very effective at picking up sounds and distinguishing birds from ambient noise but I’d give it 5 stars if it had many more bird song identities.

Awesome, but needs more bird songs!

5

By Hope rockz

The app is wonderful, five stars for the quick playbacks of bird songs and calls... it has greatly helped me with my bird song identification skills, but for regular/experienced birders it would be nice if the Cornell Lab could incorporate some of the very significant species that they have left out. I understand that this is a fledgling app, however I would really hope that in the future they expand their species lists because there are so many other species out there to be included and for 14.99 I would hope they continue to expand their species lists for each state. For example, many sparrow species have been omitted - I believe this to be particularly concerning because sparrows are rather hard to identify by sight to begin with and remain relatively inconspicuous. Song reliance means everything with sparrows! Also various woodpeckers and hawks are left out. Ducks, swans, shorebirds, gulls, terns, herons and other coastal birds are left out all together.

Helpful, but not flawless

4

By Shadow9cat

This app is fascinating. The accuracy on identifying the birds is hit or miss, which is to be expected especially when there is background noise. Isolating the call doesn’t always work, but it does help.
The most interesting part to me about this app is seeing the spectrograms. The I’m starting to see patterns for the individual species. I’m a visual learner so this is going to help me see and hear the calls to aid in identification. Also, saving calls for my local birds is a godsend. Birds seem to have a different dialect depending on region. Now I can save recordings of my local birds to compare. Don’t know if the ability is in the app yet as I am only just exploring this, but it would be nice if my calls could be added to the information page for individual species maybe on a separate tab, so I could quickly reference my local recordings.
My only complaint is that the rarity of the birds is inaccurate. For example, in my area eastern wood peewees are considered scarce by the app, but they are quite common in the woods. Perhaps the app will get smarter as more people record bird calls. But it’s a good start. I’ve already spent hours and hours playing around with it and I absolutely love it!

Don’t remove features that work!

1

By Meghana27

I like this app better without the “improvements”.
The new selection box makes me select the particular bird song I’m interested in and then makes me select one of the possible matches. If I knew which bird is singing, I wouldn’t need the app in the first place!!
We have a wooded area in our backyard which is home to lots of local bird. It’s very rarely that we can actually see the bird that is singing. And that is exactly why I need the app. Making me select the bird species that I think is singing based on short-listed suggestions defeats the purpose.
I don’t see a way to turn off the selection box.
I’m okay with the app making close guesses as to which bird species it might be based on my location like it did before but now it seems useless to me.

Unsatisfactory

1

By Chinnifer2

I was really disappointed with this app. Save your money and do not buy it. It does not correctly ID birds but also the microphone tends to turn on out of no where. I wish there were refunds.

Fun to play with but

2

By @no mick name

It records sounds, and gives you a possible list. But the results are all over the map. Example, goose, human, etc.. I am a beginner. Wish I could have tried before I bought. Would not have purchased.

Disappointed

2

By Mooshell11

I had an Eastern Phoebe right in front of me and it did not pick it up. I am surrounded by various sparrows, woodpeckers, robins, no one talking and it said barred owl, boreal owl, and human. No humans around me.

Song Sleuth

1

By ginie wasp

Does not work. 99% of what it labels is as a red tailed hawk. Wrong!!
I’d like a fix or my money back.